Why Having ADHD Makes You Better At Meditating

[@AnymMusic]

My mom always taught me that meditation isn't about not thinking. It's about when you think, you don't latch on. You might notice that sometimes you latch on to a thought and suddenly you're constantly thinking and making a whole story, etc. The idea my mom taught was to look at thoughts from an observer's point of view. It's okay to think and have thoughts, just not to latch on to every thought you have. Have a thought? Realize you have it, and let go again. Ofc easier said than done, but still

[@Heyu7her3]

Oh naw that's too much work 😅 I'm gonna go straight to sleep

[@Dingghis_Khaan]

What I've learned is that thoughts are not a thing you do, they are a thing that you sense. Just like the master with the stick, intrusive thoughts are not something you can control. Once you learn to let the thoughts come and go, then you can find calm within your mind.

[@AnymMusic]

@@Dingghis_Khaan that would definitely be a better way of saying it. You sense that you're thinking and can let go as opposed to latching on

[@natking1u1z99]

“What your mother taught you”😏is not even original. It’s actually what is taught when you first learn how to meditate.

[@SidewaysY]

My mom didn't teach me that. Thank your mom for me. :-)

[@jessesmith7553]

This type of meditation sound functionally no different from breath meditation. But, many people are not given adequate instruction for breath meditation. Breath meditation also involves the exploration of the inner mind and the noticing of ever more subtle details. The Mind Illuminated is an amazing book that gives step by step instructions from the most basic to the most advanced principles of meditation.

[@cmaclsu]

Agreed. Anapana meditation is much more than just following the breath. There's more to its and it can be a wonderful technique for us adhd folk.

[@burritosupreme5310]

I actually did a nonverbal version of this once. I was really into particle physics and all that when I was younger, and what I did was close my eyes, and use my minds eye to imagine/visualize all the photons/particles and their motions in the room, including my own body. It basically overloaded my brain until when I was finished, I was actually the clearest I’ve ever felt mentally, it was amazing.

[@WarriorPocky]

Hey funny, I recently got into quantum physics this month; had been in the middle of an existential crisis trying to figure out purpose, meaning, what or who am I, all that good stuff. I kept going in circles re these things and told myself, I'm gonna stop this for now and go spend time having fun by finally dedicating time to learning physics as I have always wanted. The more that I understood "reality" or the models we have of it, the more it grounded me. Similarly to you, I thought about all the processes in me, around me, beyond me, those that I do not even perceive nor have a name for. After having achieved this kind of perspective, I find myself more appreciative of the mundane; a sort of feeling like I've been tripping on drugs but sober. I had become more calm, mentally clear, physically feeling better, even my vision has become sharper with more contrast to the point that it IS overwhelming. I hope people find a similar thing in their lives; most people sadly seem to go through life on auto-pilot and many times, through no fault of their own.

[@dariushine416]

Oh really. Then do it again.

[@Tzizenorec]

I think the big question here is: Why did you only do that once?

[@burritosupreme5310]

@@Tzizenorec “Your brain naturally wants to avoid anything good for it” -paraphrased from Doctor K. Textbook ADHD. Working on it. Didn’t appreciate how powerful it affected me until later.

[@zit1999]

@@WarriorPocky I also observe the same grounding effect that focusing on laws of physics and scientific findings has. It's almost like a spectrum of understanding is spirituality and imagination on one end and nature and laws of physics on the other end - they give each other a very rich expanse to marvel at.

[@Chiken_Tendy]

Please never stop making meditation and spirituality videos. Your explanations are the clearest I've heard on the subject

[@ChannelDaniPresley]

I’ve just discovered him and I’m fascinated as heck now!!! Waiting for a professional adhd (or whatever) diagnosis and this will help me meditate better

[@ysy_y]

Agreed. I'm glad he still does them, though he can't go as deep as he used to. If you check the older videos & some of the unofficial archive channels you might find more like this

[@padarousou]

Indian culture is very in touch with those things it's nice to see him apply that ancient wisdom from his culture into his medical practice and teachings

[@Skeptic-f1n]

You don't wanna get better

[@Karlswebb]

@@Skeptic-f1n?

[@kena4977]

I have never been able to meditate longer than 13 minutes and usually DRAGGING myself accross that finish line. I set a timer for 30 minutes and it interrupted me. That is awesome.

[@NoThing-ec9km]

Dang

[@JimmyTaylor108]

Wow that is great! Keep it up!

[@paigerasmussen5212]

It gets way easier once you start seeing things *like lights and colors and hearing sounds inside. Then it's actually fascinating rather than an exercise in sitting still and trying to ignore thoughts. I can't speak to other exciting things that happen but I hope I'll be able to experience them.

[@kristinaellura9714]

I was listening to him wondering how I was going to count to 33 while doing this because guaranteed I can't count past 3 unless counting is the only thing I'm thinking about, lol! seting a timer makes a lot of sense

[@hobi1369]

The vibration gets on my nerve in a bad way. I can not even do 1 aum.

[@FaerieEnderHare]

tldr: I can control my organs because of a practice similar to this. I honestly have always been fascinated with things in my body. Over the years, I would spend lots of time playing with different sensations and trying to figure out what they were. eventually, I discovered that I can change many things within my body. The first thing I learned how to control was muscles, and it was fascinating to be able to isolate a muscle group and move just that on command. Then I discovered I could change my heartrate. Now, I can even change my blood pressure, I can influence my digestive system, and control so many things that feel weird to mention. It truly is an addicting thing, and I am fascinated by this mode of meditation.

[@BrigittePatrice4750]

That's awesome, have you tried taoist inner alchemy Neigong, with the greater Kan and li, to develop the jin into qi into shen? Have you felt your Totodial field. And the central channel

[@1Indig0]

Agreed

[@hearts99]

Would you like to tell more about the ptactice you do

[@FaerieEnderHare]

@@hearts99 it’s not really based on anything, just random experimentation throughout my life with my body’s capability and awareness of what’s happening.

[@mycelia_ow]

Dude reached godhood

[@TheVioletWolf]

This here.. i am def adhd and i have been able to meditate in the most disciplined and hardcore way, for hours of just sitting quiet. It’s almost like a psychedelic experience when i get into the zone. It took me a long time to get to the point where the distractability or racingthoughts didn’t bother me or hinder me as much as it did at first. As long as you can shift your perspective into something as you’re experiencing and observing as opposed to something youre making yourself do, it opens up an entire universe of existence. It’s saved my life, dude. I don’t use medications anymore for my adhd or anxiety/depression. Straight up meditation and breath work feels like my actual brain chemistry has changed. I don’t say this lightly, as I started this endeavor 5 years ago. Totally worth it.

[@Pandoradow]

thank you friend. this might just save my life as well..

[@redguyphil1]

If you're interested definitely look into Ram Dass. There is a deep correlation between the psychedelic experience and deep meditative states, or being "in the zone". Anything can be a meditation. Dance, crocheting, doing the dishes, playing/listening to music. There's many paths.

[@eltiolavara9]

@@redguyphil1 that seems right honestly, i do very repetitive things at work and a few times per day i really get "in the zone" and it really does feel like meditating

[@ghassankhan7728]

Yeah I absolutely agree it takes a while to get to that point of being in a very peaceful zone and in the beginning it feels like pulling teeth but if you stay persistent you’ll find very profound changes such as you’ve described.

[@NewLife-qj9mx]

Observing, that really is the key word, isnt it 🙏

[@Cobruz]

What has helped me through a lot is being able to channel inner thoughts and memories by thinking of a random thing that triggers them. For 2 and a half years I lived in a hospital and that gave me a lot of alone time to think. ADHD, can be a battle, (and it is) but I learned that it is actually more of a blessing. What has helped me over the past years was to close my eyes and think of one thing. Whether it be an item, food, person, etc. After holding on to that thought i would expand upon it in almost a memory like fashion. Then keep on expanding through an endless thought provoked wormhole. This has also helped me sleep when it was hard to do so. This video is phenomenal and well explained. Great job! ❤

[@dragonabsurda]

I'd never thought of that kind of internal exploration as a meditation before. I feel like I've been doing that for as long as I can remember, but just called it daydreaming. 😂

[@haitiankid9456]

holy sht you just blew my mind

[@julius43461]

Wait, that's it? Daydreaming is meditation? I do it all the time, and although I enjoy it while it lasts, it usually has horrible effects on me after I need to proceed with the real world tasks. I become lost and absent minded.

[@baskeplaye009]

​@milos4987 same here, I could wander for hours daydreaming. But It hasn't affected my life that much.

[@julius43461]

@@baskeplaye009 Here is an example. Whenever I have to wait for something I get lost daydreaming. Maybe I'm waiting in the bank, or for my car to get checked or whatever. As soon as the waiting is done, I need to get back to communicating with people, or explaining to them what the purpose of me being there is, and I just can't do that because mentally I left that place a while ago. Don't you have issues like that?

[@Kumaryoku]

@@baskeplaye009 The point is that you investigate your thoughts and feelings etc as phenomena that just happen, rather than becoming part of the story yourself. Usually we see those phenomena as somehow relating to us, but at that point we are already part of the story. It is a somewhat delicate balance that you can get a feel for if you pratice with this mindset

[@bighouse5804]

It wasn't until I stopped trying to focus so hard on my breath that meditation really started to change my life for the better. Whilst I haven't tried the method in this vid, just changing things from trying too hard to focus on the breath and excluding everything else, to just NOTICING what is happening makes all the difference. It's a complete shift in perspective. I like the instruction from Joseph Goldstein to just "notice whatever is predominant", whether that be a thought, a body sensation, a sound etc. In terms of apps, I agree that they are a problem in a lot of ways. However, I can't recommend "Waking Up" enough. They offer a no-questions-asked free subscription if you email to request it, which imo just shows the attitude they have towards this. It also has a much better approach the Headspace etc. which seem to mainly focus on the breathing meditation.

[@EraDanceMusic]

I have to try a different method too as focusing on breathing has been so hard

[@friedensgabel]

"there is an endless amount of expolation within you" is an extremly powerful observation. I'm so thankful to my parents for teaching me meditation as a child, letting me explore that inner universe freely. There's so much I've found during that time that I only could put in words years later

[@0Ciju0]

Yup, that puts you above probably 95% of the population - in terms of emotional stability.

[@MaxAngor]

"They're exploring their internal universe." I've been doing that since I was an abused kid! I literally do that every lap I walk without my dog! If my headphones are in and my book/music is on, I am plumbing the depths to figure out how to improve myself or why a random thing happened or why I said a certain thing instead of another thing. That people CAN'T do that is astounding to me. That's my #1 way to kill boredom!

[@DWEGOON]

I've always thought meditation was the suppression of emotion, not the exploration of them. Whenever I try to do it, I always get distracted by my own thoughts, and it makes me feel like I've "failed" at meditating. I'll give this a shot though

[@jadef1531]

Meditation isn't about not thinking, it's about noticing each time you get lost into thinking and gently going back to observation/ exploration of your body sensations, breath being an anchor ⚓

[@AdeptSnake]

Been meditating for a long time and this is the thing that EVERYONE says when they say they tried meditation and it didn't work. It is of course, incorrect. Meditation is the easiest and hardest thing. Do nothing and carefully watch what happens. With enough time, repetition, and earnest effort this attentiveness turns into insight as you recognize patterns.

[@JRoseBooks]

If you’re curious, I recommend checking out books/materials by Pema Chodron. She has some of my favorite advice on meditation (other than Dr K of course)

[@ExcaliburPaladin]

You are just too harsh for yourself. The best thing I ve heard about this is "comparing thoughts to cars on street" They just come and go. They are your companion in life and those make your feelings. If you have hard feeling about something I recommend doing round movement with your hands while breathing and thinking about the thing bothering you ( Take breath in and lift your arms up with round movement when keeping thought in mind and then breathing out, making hands come down and trying to make your struggle go away. Make it easy, just comfortable, slow movement. Until it calms down) Worked for me ❤

[@Sundji]

Yup. I feel you. I wouldn't realize when my meditation podcast would end and I would be super distracted for 20+ minutes. I would feel bad because I didn't meditate about the subject I wanted to. Hopefully we both learn to let loose.

[@MultiWeb23]

Just a side note on Zen: I am a Soto-Zen Buddhist practitioner/student (with ADHD, btw) and the stick part is not accurate at all. The "stick" is called kyōsaku and it is flat and *it causes only a little sting-like sensation but no real pain or injury at all* , it is gone in seconds. The monk in charge of the kyōsaku walks around the meditaion hall during retreats and stuff like that and only hits you *if you ask him to do so* . If you think you are getting sleepy, you just bow your head, put your palms together and wait. It is not punishment (since it does not hurt and you ask for it), it is meant to help you keep focus. Now, talking of maditation itself, knowing my attention deficit, my family and friends usually get surprised to know that I can meditate 40 minutes a day. That's when I tell them: "literally anyone can maditate", it is just like going to the gym, you start very unconfortable, unable to lift heavy weights, but after sometime it works just fine. Practice is the magical word.

[@bmtwls]

I always wonder about the accuracy when someone outside of a certain culture tries to describe concepts from that culture. Thanks for the explanation!

[@caffeinum]

is it possible that’s what they do in layman zen temples now, but it’s not what the practice originally was about?

[@MultiWeb23]

@@caffeinum I don't think so, there is no need to injure anyone, that would go against some principles, but I can only say it for sure about Sōtō

[@jackofthecoke]

I could seriously use that in my life. We ADHD folks have that motivation gap and a voluntary request for a "poke" of sorts to get us back on track helps!

[@jackofthecoke]

@@caffeinum I'm going to guess what HealthyGamer is describing is probably more parallel to what happens among more old school, traditional Hindu priests? Used to attend a meditation group, guy who led it explained that self-inflicted pain was part of the process centuries ago.

[@jespinola8493]

Was diagnosed and medicated back in February. Started meditating about a month ago, at least twice a day, roughly 30-60 minutes depending on how I'm feeling. After that and looking into things regarding the self image and ridding one's self of it, I truly, truly have found peace and true mental clarity. Not just my anxiety is gone, but all forms of neuroticism. There truly is nothing that anyone can say to me besides a threat that can negatively affect how I feel. It is absolutely amazing. Please meditate, if you feel terrible.

[@SimonClarkstone]

Does it affect the need for ADHD medication?

[@falzonrobert]

Curious about this, I'm currently on Ritalin and Cymbalta lol, if I can be done with this after a year with meditation I'd love that@@SimonClarkstone

[@arborandra]

What kind of Meditation are you practicing/how do you meditate? As Dr. K describes in the video?

[@patrikvajgel240]

That's cool. What kinda mediation do you practice?

[@nigelcardoso7653]

Which meditation are you using?

[@sicklecellwithdr.o]

I love how you provide a positive reframe on ADHD to allow us to optimize the condition.

[@ysy_y]

It's really wild how much of a bad wrap people give ADHD, rightfully and unrightfully so. Overdiagnosis of the wrong people, underdiagnosis of the right people, drs with a shallow understanding pushing meds in 20 min appts (personally went thru this),the ADHD subreddit's mods steering the narrative towards disability-first, to the point where many people are banned from there for positive outlooks. ADHD is a skill tree, and most people are at a beginner level when it comes to that.

[@TheRedValue]

I am a likely candidate with ADHD and I have always felt that my meditations are easier and better when there is a slight discomfort around. Things like sitting in the cold outside during winter or sitting in a cold/hot (Onsen) bath works wonders.

[@OmegaFire11]

Me too, idk why. I'm trying to get a diagnosis, but I also find sitting outside when it's very hot or cold makes it easier to meditate, because I'm also trying to fight against the cold, not just boredom Also makes dealing with the weather at work easier

[@mental_kintsugi]

Diagnosed adhd guy here. I got the same experience. The reason for this is that with adhd, your minimum sensory input to focus is elevated. Learning gets easier with music on. Driving gets easier with music on. Everything gets easier if he have additional sensory input (up to a certain point where we get distracted). This is why adhd kids feel restless and start fidgeting whenever they have to sit still. The lack of input makes us search for or create our own input. The same goes for meditation: What we can't bear is the absolute silence and lack of sensory input. We either become restless or fall asleep (mostly as a coping strategy against the silent void).

[@elpepe-wx7oj]

huh explains why i meditate best in the shower

[@Sundji]

@@mental_kintsugi Yup. This is why I'm getting into binaural beats

[@dinkin_flicka14]

Oh my fucking god i didn't know it was an ADHD thing. When i meditate, it has to be cold or when I'm taking a hot bath, i close my eyes and let the hot water consume me. I love hot baths it hits different fr.

[@epistemophilicmetalhead9454]

we're highly sensitive to small things, not distractable we love novelty there is endless exploration within you. backtrack on your thoughts and feelings. It's an infinite, engaging game :) Aum chanting: the goal isn't to complete a task, it's to explore version 1: open your mouth and make a sound and take it all the way to when you close your mouth (that's how you pronounce aum XD) notice within yourself when you're chanting, you'll realize there's a subtle vibration within you 15:26-15:52 you'll start noticing the different kinds of vibration in different parts of you. This is the goal: getting your brain hyper-focused on trying to find the vibrations many many rounds (usually 33). you'll focus better in the later rounds.

[@evoloxe]

I can't get enough of this dude

[@NoThing-ec9km]

get more

[@markvosslpcc]

I would quibble with the take on Zen, but the reframe of distractibility to "sensitive to small things" is fantastic and something I will definitely steal. ☺

[@N22883]

I also have subclinical (or probably clinical) ADHD, and have found that Aum chanting is the best for me! This is one of my favorite mediations so I’m excited to write here Dr. K has another video titled 'Meditation to Remove Negative Emotion' where I first found this out - I’d recommend checking that out It's reassuring to hear what Dr .K says at 21:30, where it takes a few chants to get into it. For anyone struggling with meditation, this segment from Andrew Huberman is fantastic: "Unless you are an experienced meditator, your focus will drift away from the practice (Aum chanting in this case). This could happen every 5, 10, or 20 seconds, but it's important to recognize the practice benefits come from refocusing back to the vibration sensations. A common misconception is that you're supposed to focus on your breath, and that if your mind drifts you're failing, but that's not the case. A huge component of improving your ability to focus and concentrate via neuroplasticity (rewiring of the brain circuits) is the repeated return to the state of focus from a state of non-focus. Think about driving down the road, and your car constantly drifts to the right. You hit the rrrr side of the road, and you have to pull back. That's what meditation is about, pulling back into the lane, not staying within the mental lanes all the time. Fully expect at some point you'll be thinking about something else, and then that's a cue to focus back to the meditation. By doing that over and over you're training the network within your brain (including prefrontal cortex, inferior temporal cortex, hippocampus, other components) that is involved in directing our mental focus and concentration. I cannot emphasize enough this a practice of focusing and refocusing. Constantly refocusing. This is going to be very effective at teaching yourself to focus and stay concentrated. Interpret every time that you focus off that location about one inch behind your forehead as an opportunity to refocus, and think about the refocusing as a trigger for teaching your neural circuits how to focus for extended periods of time. A 13 minute meditation done every day for 8 weeks showed significant improvements in focus, concentration ability, and other aspects of cognitive function like mood and reduced stress. As a bonus, the study showed improvements in sleep and memory, not just stress, focus, and concentration." For aum chanting, I also find it’s much calmer than other forms of meditation, likely due to its long exhale (which actives the rest and digest arm of the nervous system) and ease of focusing on the vibration. There also may be something with nitric oxide production per James Nestor’s book Breath, but I’m very skeptical Bee's Breath is another vibration focused meditation by Dr. K worth checking out. Also rotating sound awareness

[@farfromirrational]

Same goes for stretching. It's difficult and uncomfortable at first, but the more you do it, the more pleasurable and easy it becomes.

[@N22883]

@@farfromirrational I think I’ll add to the analogy: there are certain kinds of stretching that are more fun and easier to adhere to than others, and certain kinds of stretching are more effective for improving mobility than others And like you said, stretching also becomes easier with time Like any other muscle in the body, consistency and adherence is most important. For meditation, or push-ups

[@imperfectly_megan]

Thank you for this in depth comment. There were many helpful points. :)

[@brandoncoins8246]

I too have adhd and I accidentally discovered vibration when I came across a singing bowl and immediately knew the feeling it gave was meditation. I played it for 6-7hours straight and felt fantastic after and I could still feel the vibration throughout my body the next day. Highly recommend you guys look into singing bowls i believe they are very powerful tools

[@N22883]

@@brandoncoins8246 thanks for sharing! I haven’t heard one in person before, I’ll have to look into thay

[@l3paranormal959]

I use to accidently meditate when I was younger while trying to fall asleep. My mind was so active just thinking about whatever, but my body was super relaxed, feeling paralyzed, trying to coax myself to sleep to the point I even ignored itching sensations and comfortability. But it took hours for me to actually fall asleep and after doing that for so many months, I had the craziest spiritual/paranormal experiences during this part of my life. I was having prophetic dreams, astral projection experiences, mediumship abilities, while getting tangible evidence for my skeptical mind. It was so mind opening that it lead me to deeper research and strengthened my faith. But I feel like I understand what Dr K means about enhanced awareness leading to "understand things about the universe" in an "esoteric and mystical" way. Very very true in my experience. It's like a key to unlock a super power in us, but so easy to ignore in today's society.

[@Apathetic-desperation]

Ohh I’ve had a lot of disjointed spiritual experiences. I’d love to hear more about what you experienced. Do you blog?

[@KaechiP]

I remember that, as a child, I had similar experiences whenever I tried using that sleep technique

[@flowerbloom5782]

Sounds like you were lucid dreaming.

[@SuntzuDragon]

It’s so incredibly validating to hear Dr K. put into words what I’ve been doing for years without even realizing. I tried so many apps and guided practices but would always do it for a few days, get bored, and move on. In addition to aum chanting, I experienced a lot of benefits from some exploration at random moments during the day. You can ask what you’re feeling (physically, mentally, or emotionally) and try to understand what caused it and where it came from. The more you do it, the more subtle stuff you’ll be able to pick up on. I love it because it basically turns understanding yourself into a game. Except this one has infinite levels and constant new DLC 😎

[@zit1999]

so it wasn't just weed then, all these years 😄🙃

[@DaPoofDaPoofDaPoofDa]

That’s so cute

[@stephenechessa7105]

That's a perfect way to put it. 😅

[@randomoldcrone]

Validated🙏🏼

[@joshnguyen7164]

These are my exact thoughts too. The thing with hyperfixations is that when we lose the novelty seeking pleasure from reaching an end of an activity we stop the activity. With meditation & self-reflection the novelty seeking never ends! It's so fun to continuously explore this rabbit hole of yourself into continuous different iterations of yourself.

[@katiemcleod]

Today I learned I've been doing some of this instinctively! Also, I'd always struggled to meditate for any length of time. The longest I managed was just shy of 20 minutes. Today I blew that record out of the water using this approach. I meditated for a solid 50 minutes, and only stopped because I chose to, not because I couldn't keep going! Thank you!

[@BloodVixen]

I was diagnosed with the attentive ADHD and clinical depression when I was 10. Through the years of 2010, peeking at the coup de gras that was 2020, it was probably one of the roughest decades of my life. Going through a divorce, child custody issues, liquidating all of your assets and losing everything except the clothes on your back and four wheels to get you down the road, spending 2 months in custody for a crime you never committed only to to have the charges dropped... it was a rough decade to say the least. Doctor K, your videos have changed my life for the better, and I can't overstate that. I've come to appreciate life in the moment as you say, and now I've never felt more alive and happy to be then I am now. It took having to be blessed with long suffering to achieve it, but I believe that all things happen for a reason just like how I found your videos that year and some change ago. I thank you for the service you do to not just me, but others like me. Bless you. 💜

[@SuperheroWannabe]

Really appreciate this one. I agree that the way we talk about "distractibility" vs "sensitivity" needs more encouraging explanations like this ❤

[@catchingchristopher]

00:00 🧘 ADHD can be seen as a meditation superpower, enabling unique perspectives rather than a hindrance. 02:37 🏔 Mainstream mindfulness practices are tailored for neurotypical individuals, but advanced meditation methods might suit those with ADHD. 07:22 🧠 ADHD characteristics of novelty seeking and high sensitivity become strengths in advanced meditation, fostering exploration within oneself. 10:23 🚀 Hardcore meditation involves exploring one's internal universe by examining thoughts, emotions, and vibrations, leading to profound discoveries. 18:41 🌀 ADHD's novelty-seeking and heightened sensitivity accelerate progress in meditation, leading to quicker advancements than neurotypical individuals in certain practices. 21:15 🍹 Mainstream meditation practices have become watered down, losing the depth and robustness of the original spiritual traditions. 21:42 🧘‍♀ Misconceptions about being "bad" at meditation may stem from practices tailored for profit, not genuine spiritual growth. 22:23 💰 Commercialized meditation apps prioritize user retention over authentic spiritual development, altering the true essence of meditative traditions. 23:05 🛑 Feeling inadequate at meditation might not be due to personal inability but rather flawed teachings that diverge from authentic spiritual objectives. 23:31 🌟 Meditating with ADHD involves exploration within oneself, seeking layers of understanding rather than following a rigid, rote practice.

[@MildlyRabid]

Thank you so much! I used these as a review after watching to help me retain what I learned.

[@lindseyaia-i3u]

That makes sense to me

[@thijmen2646]

my goat

[@chrisbarry9345]

The way he is describing Zen is different than how I've heard it. At a most basic level I was told that instead of seeking to get past thoughts you observe them to find their connections and patterns and go deeper and deeper to see what is leading to what until you realize there's nothing behind all of it

[@Quinid1]

I'm no good at medication, but TBF I have never tried. I will say when I tried ayuwasca, I accidentally ended up doing exactly what you described, except I discovered the base cause, and its me holding on to it is why I have the issue. And then I would wake up as if I turned over a new leaf!

[@noahraab2429]

If there’s nothing then I am nothing. But that’s just not true.

[@depraved420]

The key to meditation is not trying to get anything from it, don't try to control your mind, don't try to relax, don't try to have a blank mind. You just let it flow, you don't judge the thoughts, you just observe like you would clouds crossing the sky. ❤️

[@nikolaisedov2295]

For me, the problem was i’d just always fall asleep following the train of thought. Until i started to learn to control it

[@Pikachu-qr4yb]

Don’t try to relax tho? 😢

[@depraved420]

@@Pikachu-qr4yb no, don't try to do anything. 🙂

[@Pikachu-qr4yb]

@@depraved420 but if I’m not relaxed I notice everything else that annoys me

[@depraved420]

@@Pikachu-qr4yb you can relax just don't try to relax. Anything you "try" to do is fake. You either are relaxed or not, no trying. 🙂

[@goinsmelvin]

I’ve had this revelation a couple of months ago. I don’t think it’s just meditation. Once I’ve started my Buddhism journey I started to feel as though I harness the “bad” parts of my adhd being able to use the not being able to stick to one subject is now used to get out of the bad parts of the mind. The ADHD voices in my head would tend to focus on the bad things in my day, now my ADHD mind focuses on the good in the bad wishing the people around me well and making realizations about behaviors of myself and others and using Buddhist principles to avoid falling into the wrong path.

[@christianmichael6977]

I have diagnosed ADHD (32M) and started meditating with Dr K's guide. I only wish I had started sooner, but Dr K, perhaps you should warn some of us tell some of those discoveries might be scary or painful (ymmv) and if so, that's ok - especially because so many of us with ADHD have depression and/or anxiety and trauma. Still, nothing else has helped me so viscerally and dramatically as meditation has.

[@digitalspecter]

Sofo Archon's "The Dark Side of Meditation" talks about this. But good to hear you've greatly benefited from it.

[@Loveiskindloveiskind]

If you don’t mind, please share some of your insights!

[@christianmichael6977]

@@Loveiskindloveiskind Well, slight context - I shoved myself through my PhD through using "malicious motivation", to use a term I found in an ADHD book by Tamara Rosier. One way that I'd found to focus myself beyond my hyperactivity was to stress myself into activities - always pushing deadlines, and building mountains out of molehills (or larger mountains out of already big mountains), etc.. all of this was on top of the shame of "something's busted in me" that Dr K talks about in his other videos. When I started meditating - anxiety and MDD was diagnosed first - A lot of really big, really old fears from childhood came racing to the surface about 1.5-2 weeks into practicing. I would find myself shocked out of meditation, or felt my heart racing, etc. Like unchaining that catastrophe that the anxious mind sees in everything. But, the more I've continued, the more it's gone away, the "directing mind" (to use Marcus Aurelius' term) is more easily empowered, less of that lizard-brain jitteriness takes over. It's still there, but I feel much more calm and in control than I used to, and life feels less hopeless. It's an ongoing work in progress, but just knowing that it can be better provides a level of relief that's hard to put into words.

[@Loveiskindloveiskind]

@@christianmichael6977 Thank you for your reply! That sounds amazing. I totally get the whole malicious motivation.. used to do that in school but at some point I just couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore (probably exhaustion and learning healthier ways to talk to myself). I’m glad to hear you feel more empowered, excited to try!

[@nigelcardoso7653]

​@@christianmichael6977which section of Dr ks guide did you use?

[@Stormbura]

Thank you for this video. I can only add my voice to the message and say "you should absolutely do this". I was diagnosed with ADHD on my 41st birthday after a life of struggling with things my intellect said should have been easy. Less than 3 months later, I discovered how to explore my inner life. It is the single most transformative moment I have ever had, and if I were to go through an ADHD examination again, I don't think they would believe my symptoms to be strong enough for a diagnosis. If you have ADHD, then you know that there are situations where you can be focused, such as when you are interested, passionate about something, when you're in a competition etc... Ask yourself "how do I feel when I am passionate?", or "what is my inner state when I am competitive?". Then activate those emotions yourself rather than relying on the external world to do it for you. That will move you from "struggling with life" to "neurotypicals ain't got nothin' on me". Basically go from "I am passionate about X" to "I am passionate".

[@tearstoneactual9773]

Okay, so, I learned a lot about meditation in my teens, through martial arts. And it's helped a lot with my ADHD and learning to discipline the noise, to an extent. I actually learned about what Dr K is talking about in a completely different way in my 20s. I've also been a long-time musician and singer. I learned some of this through pitch-matching and learning to hear the 'beats' in the sound. (Single continuous note/sound, like a vacuum cleaner running, the more off tune it is the more you'll hear the discordant beats as the sound waves propagate and overlap. The slower the beat the more in tune you are.) I learned a lot about resonance by sitting in a racquetball court and starting this kind of Aum sound or a drone, and seeing how long I could maintain it for, listening to the sound and resonance. I did the same with friends, working together, harmonizing too. And then that lead to throat singing and over-tones. And of course over the years, learning how to feel vibration and stuff like this happening in my body. This is all really good stuff, and I didn't realize until now how all interconnected it is. Not to mention, this explains so much about what I was doing and what I was getting out of it. This is freaking awesome.

[@EasilySteezily]

omg this sounds so amazing to do with frineds

[@jordanburton9819]

This video was very inticing as a person with ADHD, literally got me excited for meditating after feeling like I never could.

[@Lukasek_Grubasek]

I'm always happy when you upload meditation-related stuff as that's mainly what got me in this community in the first place

[@connorhillen]

"This can get addicting" - I think is worth highlighting. I'd love to hear some insight on this. As a kid I taught myself to meditate without realizing it which really helped me learn systems design and harmonizing elements for teaching game design, and diving into various Buddhist traditions as an adult learned to meditate more strongly. The problem is, hypervigilance, learning obsession, and ADHD, meditating *is* addicting. Cessation becomes one of the hardest parts; I can meditate for a long time easily now, but short meditation is tough. I've tried to shift to a shorter, 20-30 minute daily and then short 2-5 minute meditations every 25-30 minutes while I'm working, at least for a bit, to check in on the body and mind. But for real, for some people, the infinite exploration available, the new bodily sensations, the warped time sense, can all be pretty tough to get away from.

[@milanpokr]

This meditation feels a lot easier than regular mindfulness. Time flyes much faster doing this. Thanks!

[@maja-kehn9130]

Yes, I set a timer for 30 minutes and I was shocked at how fast the time went by.

[@brandoncoins8246]

Highly recommended looking into singing bowls.

[@cameronheron8551]

I have ADHD and sometimes struggle to stop exploring my internal universe. I am 25 and have recently overcome my depression, gained a better self image and gained control of my emotions and all but now I feel I have over corrected cuz I can't stop exploring every aspect of why I am this why, why don't I have a favorite color is there a deeper meaning to everything. This had made me struggle to sleep

[@nuckels188]

That "inner universe" doesn't necessarily have to be explained by internal reason/dialogue. It can be just an abstract feeling that exists amongst all the other variables in and around us

[@nuckels188]

I prefer to reserve logic and categorizations for the external world. The only parts of subjective experience that i find can be "explained" are the ones driven by instinct

[@Natalie-kl3er]

I've been going through this to a point where I'm feeling worried abt it too but I think the important part here is "recently". Your self-reflection has helped pull you out of a really hard time where you struggled to direct effort towards anything and you found that this internal questioning was really rewarding, but those trains of thought and questioning that helped pull you through one stage are feeling burdensome as you are feeling more desire to reconnect with the world (I may be off track but what you've just said feels so familiar to me rn) in the next phase stepping away from depression. That tuning out and exploring your own universe is it's own kind of coping strategy, especially for people with ADHD (who were sensitive kids, often raised in stressful environments), as it creates a buffer from a painful or overwhelming external realities and creates a feeling of internal control, so it makes so much sense that it'd be coming up a lot as your kind of exiting this period of depression and building new exciting but also stressing things into ur life. Imo it's really great that you've come so far to look around at what's got you here and feel like you want to let go and keep moving on! I'm hoping (for me too!) that as you grow and fill your life with more rewarding activities, relationships, and forms of internal and external exploration, that anxiety over feeling stuck tuning-out with self-questioning that feels burdensome will lessen and become less uncomfortable. Be patient with urself, u've got this!

[@xKumei]

I always figured it helped in the sense that...I literally don't get bored when I am watching my thoughts. The thoughts/day dreaming is actually what gets in the way of reading for me, my eyes will keep moving over the page but I went back into my head. I can take a 6 hour plane ride just observing things that come up. Seems to never run out - and if it were to then I'd just be peaceful anyway. I even like doing meditation where I focus on the breath or a mantra - because I don't view it getting interrupted as a bad thing. It's like those machines that measure earthquakes, it's creating a baseline that you can return to so you can see when it moves. And knowing what/where/how strong the earthquake was is interesting and useful.

[@julius43461]

I was always like that as well. I could sit in an empty room for days without getting bored. However, after that I found it hard to get back to doing real world things. For example whenever I had to wait in lines for too long I would end up daydreaming and completely separating myself from reality to escape the boredom. I could rewind the time so well, that after few relative seconds have passed and it's my turn, I had no idea what I was doing there. I got into embarrassing situations so many times because of that. Whenever I had to wait for more than a minute, I would get totally lost in thoughts, and would end up forgetting what I was doing in that room anyways.

[@tobiadewale1627]

This is also why music is so enjoyable. With the deep exploration I can notice all the subtlest different parts the instrumental and adlibs. You can listen to a song for years and it sounds different especially being high which escalates my adhd symptoms:)

[@nomadicgodking]

One of the best explanations for meditation I’ve ever heard. I have ADHD and have been meditating daily for about 6 years now. It’s is one of my superpowers I truly believe. And I recently started doing the AUM chants during my meditating. I’m happy to hear your clear explanation of it being AUM and not OM. And the vibrations felt during those chants you explained perfectly as well. I’m a fairly recent subscriber and I look forward to more content like this.

[@SuperpowersUniversity]

more 411 4 U ADHD=attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.👎 ADHD = Adult deficiency Hugging dependant.👍 when a Child doesn't get enough attention from there parents.

[@WlmaAlexender-zl6nx]

Hi, I got the exact opposite of what I came for out of this, but that is good, because it is a waypoint to turn around. I have an extremely overactive mind. I am haunted by tormenting intrusive thoughts. I came here to learn how to use my overactive mind to ESCAPE my internal universe. But your video is talking about exploring it. I don't want to explore it, I live there, it's awful in there and I don't want to go back. I've watched EVERY video on KZbin about this, and they basically say: 1. They are just thoughts, not you. 2. Don't give them value/fight them/get emotional, that just makes them stronger. 3. Let them come, let them go. 4. Give your attention to alternatives. All this sounds lovely, BUT DANGIT IT DOESN'T HELP! I have been suffering every day for 2 years and it's horrific and nothing helps! "Let it pass" it's passing like a freight train, right over me tied to the tracks. I've binged your videos, other people's videos, books, been practicing meditation. I love meditation but it does nothing for intrusive. Please, any advice is welcome.

[@joolslorien3936]

Do some Somatic therapy 💯 forget about dealing with the thoughts. They’re connected to emotions and physical sensations. You can work with them at that level and over time your mind will get quieter. Speaking from personal experience. I didn’t like EMDR but that might also be a good option or IFS. Investigate the trauma therapies and find a good practitioner to help you. This is totally treatable these days.

[@bucky5676]

Just preordered “How To Raise A Healthy Gamer” I’ve only recently discovered this guy’s channel, and right away, I thought he presents information in a sensible way. It’s great to have easily understandable content like this available-it contributes positively to our understanding of the world! Thanks dude

[@MonkeyHero]

As a lifeling meditator with adhd... man this episode was shockingly accurate.

[@dianehall4959]

Resonance. The vibration within is reflected in the vibrations without. Thank you for reframing distractibility as high sensitivity. Makes sense that some of us have this superpower to keep the rest of our 'tribe' alive. Having lived with this for 66 years and only being diagnosed 11 years ago, I wouldn't wish this on everyone. But we don't need everyone on high alert or humans would never accomplish anything. I came across the term 'cultural counterfeit' when reading Joseph Chilton Pearce and I've come to see how much this culture relies on 'counterfeits' of healthy practices to keep us invested. Your explanation of mindfulness meditation being a bastardized version fits the idea of 'cultural counterfeit'.

[@athar_adv]

I recently got diagnosed with ADHD, and this would actually be really helpful for myself especially due to my home situation, thank you Dr. K, your videos have helped my mental health tremendously and now I'm acing my exams better than ever. Thank you, truly. However, I really hate to ask, could you make a video about sleep schedules for people with ADHD? I've been suffering from bad sleep schedules for a while, it would be really helpful for you to create a video about it. Thank you ❤ I will be a member sometime soon

[@ladywinter2001ru]

He already did a video on this topic. Just type "Dr.K sleep schedule" in the search bar. Lots of great tips. Thanks a lot for reminding me to watch it again. I'm working on my sleep quality right now, too.

[@pajeetgupta5]

😂

[@OmegaFire11]

I'm getting a diagnosis myself, and have been working on my sleep schedule. I have bedtime alarms. I need to wake up at 4:30 am daily, so being asleep by 9:30 at the very latest is essential. My phone (I have a samsung) goes into Sleep Mode at 8 pm, locking me out of social media apps and my web browser until 4 am. It also rings an alarm at 8:30 which is for "go to your room, plug in the phone, no more screen." Then, lastly, it has another quiet buzz at 9 (in case I'm already asleep) that says "lights out no matter what) I also bought a sunrise alarm that has simulated sunset, it starts at about regular lightbulb brightness and slowly decreases until it shuts off after between 15 and 60 minutes. If I go to bed at 8, I turn it on for 1 hr, get ready for bed and read a book until it gets too dark to read, and I find that makes me sleepy And ADHD brain is good at changing routine, but not so much at sticking to one, even over long term when one has been established. The sunset function on my alarm clock, my phone locking me out of apps, and the alarms telling me to go to bed have all been big, huge helps I went from being up to 30 min late almost once a week because of oversleeping, to occasionally waking up before my alarm with these techniques all combined.

[@OmegaFire11]

Also, I don't use it, but try melatonin 30 min before bedtime. Personally, I use weed to fall asleep if I'm not sleepy at all at 8 pm, which usually happens on sunday nights (due to waking up late, I like to sleep in). Also, exercise is pretty crucial, try to do some exercise through the day. I work construction, and on days that I don't work I have a very hard time falling asleep unless I go to the gym. Some stretches before bed might be a good way to start if you're short for time, or a long walk about an hour before bed. That's all the advice I have, good luck!

[@athar_adv]

@@OmegaFire11 Thank you! I'll try your method of keeping any distraction as far away/as inacessible as possible, I do have a laptop though so I'll just move the desk further from the bed. My sleep schedule is like, at 4 in the morning to 11 in the morning so I hope this can change things over time.

[@ne14truth]

Great job, I have ADHD bad and have been meditating for many years now. Meditation takes patients, not much more really. Paying attention to your breath is designed to bore the mind, it is the reason for doing it. Boredom is typically the last "step" in meditation for everyone, not just ADHD people. What do you think Buddha did for 6 years in the forest? Staring at his belly button, or breath?. Same with Jesus in the desert for 40 days, they got really bored, but they found something within the boredom. That is the end process, boredom will continue to arrive in meditation until you face it. AUM, are the primary sounds you can make without a tongue, the U should draw out the longest and the entire thing should last a full slow breath, around 30 seconds of sound/vibration creation, longer if you can learn to do it. Yes, it is the vibration that matters, you can move it by changing the pitch of your voice, lower will take the vibration down in your body, higher will move it up. You are just doing the M sound higher pitched than the A or U is why you feel it moving up your head, the trick is to figure out how to move the vibration in the body. Thoughts are fine, just let them run on and on, this is part of the learning process. The trick is to pay a different kind of attention to the thoughts, don't notice their obvious meaning, look for where they come from, where do they go? You want to separate yourself from the meaning of the thoughts, look at them as if they were someone else's thought, play with them. Over time you will find your thoughts are not your thoughts at all, and after more time they will stop on their own. There is no way to make your thoughts stop, its not possible, you bore them away over time, they stop on their own. What happens is your ego figures out you are not paying attention to its words, you are just paying attention to where they come from, not what they mean, and it confuses it for a while, then it just stops trying. This took about two years for me, once your thoughts stop, you gain a switch that you didn't notice before, and you can shut them down at will once you find it. If you don't start, and push through it, you will be the prisoner of your thoughts until you die. It takes dedication, same time EVERYDAY, if your serious, over time it will work, no one has ever failed who stuck with it. I could explain the stick hitting but it take a lot of words, it is an honor when it happens, you have missed the entire point of that old process.

[@jdatin770]

That was one of the most incredible and awakening sensations I've ever experienced. After like 5 reps and then it continued into a full and rounded, harmonious warmth. I felt like I could do anything. I'm excited to see where this goes. Thank you Dr k. Edit after a month: delving more in the practice changes everything from how you see the world to how you see yourself and like everything in between. It just comes to you, I mean you do the work but it's still like opening your eyes for the first timeand the way Dr k describes things in these videos makes this so much more accessible to people. Thanks again Dr k

[@MichaelKilmanAuthor]

When I first learned to meditate at 19, I accidently discovered the idea of playing with tones in mantras. It gave me my first satori experience when I sat for several hours and just played with different vowel sounds. I realized that in a single tone were dozens of other sounds and tones and depending on which one I focused on or put more effort into it changed how my body felt. Ten years later I fell in love with Tibetan Buddhism because every mantra hits your body in a different way when you do it at different speeds. I was diagnosed at 17 with ADHD and this practice completely changed my life for the better. I meditate every day now and while I'm far from perfect, I make myself suffer a lot less than I used to. This was a great video. I deeply appreciate it.

[@patiakreles]

I used to do the hardcorr zen meditation having a ton of ADHD when I was a teenager. I can confirm that the first 3 months are terrible 😂 I got so bored and then I started kind of daydreaming and then my mind went really quiet and I could be there sitting just breathing for 40 minutes. I reallt liked that practice, but at first noone told me I was gonna be smacked so that scared the crap out of me, but it doesn't hurt at all, it's the sound.

[@Nurse.Addison]

HOLY SHIT!! This has completely shifted my perspective! I used to believe that the closest I could get to experiencing meditation or zen was when I did the dishes, which I actually enjoy because it brings me a sense of calmness, almost like a zen feeling. It made me laugh when you exaggerated with the "33 times" because that's exactly what I complained about at the same time, haha. I am incredibly grateful that for the first time in my 41 years of life, a doctor has categorized ADHD as a superpower. Usually, I view my ADHD as more of a hindrance than anything resembling a superpower. This video has already transformed my outlook on life. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I'm eagerly looking forward to trying more of the "aum" chanting, and knowing that I can pause and resume has relieved so much stress from my shoulders. I used to worry that if I didn't complete everything at once, I would fail.

[@lkm2287]

I actually understood the 'focusing on your breath' meditation to be almost the same as the explanation of this one. It is about noticing all the little nuances. Isn't that part of Vipassana, for example? Where you focus on your nose and how it feels with breathing in for whole days. In the end, people also describe it feeling like vibration. So with 'Aum' we are focusing on that vibration and are peeling back the layers of what we can discover with that, but one can and does do the same with the breath as well. I know, that is not how everyone does it, some people just follow the breath without too much change, but that is not all there is to that type of meditation. Maybe there is something that I am missing here.

[@JamesGordon137]

I don't think you're missing anything-both focusing on the breath and Aum chanting are valid and useful tools for enabling self exploration. However, not each of those tools are equally accessible to everyone that might want to use them, especially if they're new/inexperienced. As Dr. K has said in earlier videos, stimulants are prescribed to people with ADHD because their brains work "better" once a minimum level of stimulation is met [heavily paraphrased]. Similarly, focusing on the breath is necessarily a fairly quiet activity, and might not be stimulating enough for a new meditator, but Aum chanting is loud enough (literally and figuratively) to break through the noise floor of the ADHD mind.

[@Chaosqueenngami]

@@JamesGordon137I think you nailed exactly why verbal chanting works best for people with ADHD. My mind is a consistent stream of thought, and I mean non-stop, news ticker, uninterrupted flow of thought that I cannot stop. Silent breathing only makes it louder for me.

[@charlies8282]

⁠@@JamesGordon137its similar to trataka as well for me, breath focus is very challenging but something like trataka or aum has just enough stimulus to quiet the monkey brain

[@PumpkinPieces33]

You really connected a lot of dots for me as a singer/performer who recently self assessed for ADHD and Autism. Vocal stims and singing are a direct way of getting in touch with my body through vibrations. Similarly hot/cold environments as a sensory stimulus make meditation easier because I can meditate through the body sensation. Which seems analogous to the vibrations in aum meditation. The other morning I was paying attention to and exploring how singing felt resonating in my chest. How it vibrated the skin. And now here I am on this video ready to delete waking up 😂

[@classyjohn1923]

I'm curious. As someone with C-PTSD, wouldn't we experience similar issues with meditation since C-PTSD/trauma can masquerade as ADHD, especially with respect to attention? Hypervigilance can also be viewed as "being highly sensitive to our surroundings".

[@jadibdraws]

I would see some ppl with adhd admitting they wouldn't even try to meditate because they have this preconceived idea that they can't do it. I have adhd and once I realized just how easy meditation was I started doing it every night before bed and doing so has really improved my sleep schedule and gotten rid of my insomnia. I have dreams nearly every night now. And have found my mood overall has greatly improved. I meditate during the day too. I usually meditate with my eyes open during the day and eyes closed at night. During the day I will stare at a leaf and a piece of grass for at least 15 minutes and the longer I stare the more things start merging together or I see some kind of complex pattern in the vegatation. At night the longer I do it I start seeing flashes of images or entering into some kind of awake dream state. I'm really grateful I tried and practiced meditation inspite of what I was hearing because it actually has improved my life and mind for the better.

[@bananacarnage1318]

You know what? What i am hearing is that I HAVE been meditating(kind of) my whole life and I’m actually pretty damn good at it. I’ve been self-soothing by singing since i could make noise. When i need to decompress- i go off by myself and sit/stand in the stillness- and unconsciously- i always end up singing. I focus on the mind-body connection and learning to control my diaphragm, my posture, vocal cords, stance, etc…. I will isolate one area and experiment with making small changes and observing how it changes the sounds coming out of my mouth. I experiment with expanding my range, and perfecting a complicated run, and really listening to myself from the outside. I notice my brain will “fix” the mistakes and I’ll hear what i intended to do, not what i actually did, so it’s important to listen to myself from the outside as well as the inside. This is a practice that takes my total focus and pulls me to the present when i find myself scatterbrained, anxious, and catastrophizing. I’ve been trying to become more resilient for years and I think I can make a huge jump in progress if i pull from these experiences. Anyways- I’m no longer concerned with sucking at meditation- you have given me a huge dose of validation. Bless. 🙏

[@KnzoVortex]

Excuse the unsolicited advice, but I would say there’s a particular effectiveness to some of these prescribed ‘yogic’ things such as Aum chanting, they say it does certain things to energies, I buy into it personally, they say it particularly helps to generally balance/ground you. And further, consistent daily practice of something like this, ideally at a similar time of day, they say really starts to multiply the effect as you keep it going, and if you keep at it you really start to feel like things are changing in you. I kind of have a long and elaborate practice I do I learned from a particular spiritual org and for a while I didn’t experience much, but after like three months I’m really starting to feel it benefitting me and I’m really glad I’ve kinda stuck with it, though I wasn’t able to keep it through most of this first college semester I’m doing but I started it up again near the end. Basically I’m just saying to consider keeping up some sort of practice, as little or much as you might feel is reasonable, over an extended period as I feel like that consistent work starts to do wonders to you.

[@diegolatorre6793]

Autism and meditation is super powerful also, i feel a deep connection to meditation, my thoughts, my being.

[@flojaci]

learning that mindfulness came from a "smaking with a stick technique" was hilarious, and now I know how to really meditate 😂 thank you for the amazing content, Dr. K! ♡

[@karlbooklover]

People overcomplicate meditation. I have adhd and never went to the mountains to learn “real meditation”. I just decided one day that i know how to meditate and stopped watching endless online meditation gurus. Never looked back and it has brought me so many benefits over the years. It really is as simple as sitting down and observing your thoughts. There is no secret knowledge

[@LilFeralGangrel]

I always thought it would be hard for me to be hypnotized until I tried it and fell into trance within a few minutes of the induction, so it makes sense to me that ADHD might provide me some advantages in both mindfulness (which has been life changing for me) and meditation, it seems like the ADHD brain is really good at changing states of consciousness, we're just bad at maintaining it.

[@Heyu7her3]

I thought mindful meditation is still conscious, tho. But I've heard it can take some people with ADHD longer to go into hypnosis, particularly if they have a more rebellious tendency (aka me lol)

[@cailenfernschild6252]

Holy Sh**!!! 😭 I cried, I sweated, I raised my vibration…went from pmsing and feeling depressed to euphoric!! Whaaaaaat?! How has no one told me about this before?! Well not put in this way at least…thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart! I will be meditating this way from now on…I struggled with consistency and having ADHD I blamed it on that…now I’m exciting to see what this does for me going forward. That was such an uplifting experience and I’m so grateful to have found your video! It was EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO HEAR!!

[@lemillion5980]

How is it going?

[@annie.hi.]

As someone with ADHD I’ve always wondered why it seemed harder for other people to get to the bottom of their problem or emotion. For me it just feels natural to keep digging until I understand myself. Not connected to meditation so much but it struck me when you talked about going deeper and asking the questions.

[@vincentcaudo-engelmann9057]

This very thing makes me incredibly annoying apparently

[@annie.hi.]

@@vincentcaudo-engelmann9057 why annoying?

[@vincentcaudo-engelmann9057]

@@annie.hi. I keep digging to understand / figure things out. Many people are content to leave things unknown or ambiguous.

[@vincentcaudo-engelmann9057]

@@annie.hi. sorry I am not calling you annoying at all

[@annie.hi.]

@@vincentcaudo-engelmann9057 I didn’t take it that way. I was just curious why it made you annoying. In my experience it has been positive. But I get annoyed when others don’t want to dig sometimes.

[@Catstimesinfinity]

I've heard dr.k mention chanting for meditation before but I never fully understood it. This video explained it so well. I was listening while at work so I couldn't very well do it. I was so worried I would forget (adhd, in one ear out the other). I guess I was so excited to try that I remembered! I was playing my game and I was like "oh shoot, I wanted to try that meditation" I did it and then I did laundry, dishes, vacuumed, scraped the ice from the freezer, washed the stove, made food, drank water and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. Oh, I cleaned off the dining table and put the Christmas decors away! Can't wait to do it again. Looking forward to my work shift in 2 hours 🤩

[@ExcaliburPaladin]

I had opportunity to be meditation coach for group of 5. I have ADHD and the only way I could focus on breathing ang being aware of surrounding was when I was sharing these techniques with those wonderful people. Unfortunatly everyone got bored of it so now I struggled with meditation. Technique you shared with making sound have potential in learning to sing😊 thank you for sharing everything.

[@nyverdaletabletop1674]

I was the best at finding IEDs thanks to my ADHD. I will try this meditation thanks!

[@Dreykopff]

Only distantly related, but... I've been enjoying the music of Epica for more than 10 years already, but only after finding this channel, I noticed how prominent meditation and also eastern psychology is in their lyrics and concept art, like in all three "Kingdom of Heaven" songs, the whole latest album ("Omega"), and some others. It's so nice I get to enjoy them even more now, just by getting to understand their stuff better.

[@Bonbon53539]

22:45 I love this part comparing modern approaches to meditation which all seem to have the underlying agenda of selling something, marketing…. The way you described traditional teaching of meditation and the simple “aum” appeals to me. The vibrations I feel are real and I can feel them move through my body. What also appeals is that you are (were) a monk! More on this please!

[@nagarjuna0]

thank you so much for this video. i'm so grateful, because even though i've never been diagnosed with ADHD, i've noticed how boring breath meditations have become, so this will be much more fun :D

[@Julianninha]

Holy shit. I’m autistic and adhd, and this is like the BEST STIM. I feel the sound waves so profoundly, I feel my chest vibrating. And the pain, god, the pain in my chest kinda dissipates? I don’t know how to explain it. I just, I’m always on edge and I don’t think I properly get stuff out, and THIS IS DOING IT. thank you, thank you so much.

[@Utilitarianrpe]

As someone with ADHD I've been trying to meditate on and off for three years now. I even bought the dr K guide. It does actually help a lot but in the last two months I've been through a ten day meditation playlist only twice. It sucks because I hear to reap to benefits of meditation you need to do it everyday for 6 weeks. Hopefully this video can help motivate me

[@notoddbuttoddwho2550]

Potentially try this, whenever you think of meditation during the day, stop right there and attempt a 1 to 10 breath count. It doesn't matter if you make it all the way to 10 just keep trying to do this multiple times a day. It's okay if it's for 10 seconds or 2 minutes. Just keep up the practice. Also you can get creative, as I do my count sometimes I turn the numbers into 3D and spin them around into spheres inside my belly or I flavor them like candy so I look forward to each and every new number that comes up as I exhale. I've been doing this for some time and the other day I sat down for a 5-minute committed meditation. When I was done it turned out to be a 50 minute meditation and it was very enjoyable. I hope this helps :)

[@Utilitarianrpe]

​@@notoddbuttoddwho2550 okay thanks for the advice

[@jamiemayes914]

This makes SO MUCH SENSE! I'm adhd and have tried over and over again. I think this method is going to finally stick and honestly has me excited to try again.

[@joshicus_saint_anger]

This reaffirms a lot of my own experience with ADHD and meditation. I really appreciate your videos. This one especially resonated with me.

[@mmgraphics9799]

you literally made a video about something i experience 24/7 and Im kind of surprised its such a common thing. I never got diagnosed with adhd but I definitely never heard someone explaining what I experience day by day better than you did in this video. wehther I have adhd or ended up inducting that form of thinking another way, Id really like to know how to shut it down. It comes with many benefits like understanding others or ne things without much information and also in planning/ anticipating things quite well with very little information, but when it comes to things like relationships or fears, its also kind of a burden. it seems not to be in my control and i constantly keep over analysing everything which often results in immense stress or anxiety.

[@evamkaushik5392]

This is how I got into yoga. I began exploring my "inner universe" of musculoskeletal bio mechanics. I began instinctively sensing how my skeleton moves and how I can train and untrain it for flexibility.

[@JoeSantini]

Refreshing your energy in your mind and body with vibration. Just like Clearing energy with a gong or singing bowl. The longer the vibrational waves consist the more space it fills and clears. Time goes so fast when you get comfortable and consistently repeat the practice. I have lost track of time being so comfortable in my meditative state.

[@d.thorpe2046]

40yr old blue collar slob here. Dr K really speaks to me. Helping me understand myself. I am looking forward to some chanting. Thank you.

[@Starfish0.]

That's such a great content! I've learned to meditate years ago by reading Osho, I was astonished with all he used to say about meditation and wanted to see if they were the truth and it ended up giving me some spiritual experiences also it healed many emotional problems I had at the time. He used to talk about this hardcore zen meditation you just mentioned too, and also say that meditation is just a kind of help for us to get into our natural state of consciousness (be presente), cause we are not our mind or thoughts, we are the conscious behind them. And we can carry this state of mind in daily life. I've also experienced a boost in my memory and mental habilities in general at the time I used to meditate a lot. I'm excited to explore this new method now. The masters arre right, if we do explore ourselves we figure out truths about life and the universe that this material world don't teach us.

[@XafeModeOld]

This is really cool, and affirms some aspects of my experience as well. My mind would always wander regardless of what I would try and meditate with. Eventually I just kinda gave up, laid on my back because I was tired as hell, and just let my mind wander where it would. It was through this - the embrace of my daydreaming, rather than the rejection of it - where I would start to learn more about myself. Still difficult as hell don't get me wrong - I'm not going to act like laying perfectly still in my back for a long period of time is easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it works for me.

[@NoThing-ec9km]

I do the same. Lay down on bed pretending to sleep but wandering inside my mind trying to find out the real culprit that is my consciousness. Ofcourse I used that word in positve sense. Consciousness is all we have, we are, we know, and we can ever be.

[@julius43461]

I don't quite get it. I've been daydreaming my entire life, and that's exactly what I do every night when I can't fall asleep. But apart from knowing myself, it doesn't really help me with how I feel during the day. Daydreaming actually has a really bad effect on my day as I can't focus on anything in the real world after that. I just become absent minded and lost.

[@XafeModeOld]

@@julius43461 that's where I was too - it's only recently I learned to use it as a tool for empowerment, imagining myself in situations I wanted to create, like going to the gym or some junk. Eventually, thought I'll admit it is uncomfortable till you get over the starting bump, the idea becomes so prevalent in my mind that I end up doing it. It's not how I thought I would deal with it, but I may as well use what I have.

[@julius43461]

@@XafeModeOld Hmmm I do sometimes benefit from mapping out my day in the morning before I get up, but not sure if that counts.

[@francescaraphaely9175]

OMG thank you. I’m 43 and a Buddhist because of course I am once I heard the dharma via a big English Buddhist movement. But I’ve always struggled with meditation and I bloody hate meditation apps. Since I had kids and burned out trying to build a place for myself as a mum in the sangha (big problem in western Buddhism) I’ve struggled with my path. I feel like you put your finger on the challenges with mainstream secular mindfulness and affirm what I know about needing to build a ‘turning towards’ practice. Especially as I’m pretty sure I’m undiagnosed ADHD. You were a bit down on Zen ;) something about Zen and its radical promise based in high Mahayana has always appealed to me, is it neurodivergence to feel totally blown away by the Heart Sutra?!?! but I’m glad you cut the Zen tradition some slack at the end!!! Thanks for building bridges, this is a missing piece of the puzzle for me!

[@AlexBrowningPX]

That's really funny because I've been doing this for years without realizing it was a valid form of meditation. I've had people tell me it's not actually meditation so many times. I feel so validated.

[@EasilySteezily]

the goat stuck to it✊

[@Grigio91]

I have ADHD and I started to try to meditate "my way" to get out of a very dark moment around a year ago. Dr K, you nailed it: I KNOW I can feel very subtle truths within myself that I can only describe as sensing my internal universe and I have a strong feeling this is related with how my brain works.

[@elgatovolador3226]

Thank you Dr K, you're my favorite munkchiatrist ♥

[@thewhitene9746]

Just want to tell you im from India and was doing this AUM chanting. I have ADHD. I have tried Vipassana meditation and other witnessing meditation. But one day i just started chanting AUM after seeing a KZbin video in how to chant AUM. As im from India, AUM is word i hear regularly but when i chanted with attention i niticed those vibration subconsciously. And since i have ADHD and combined with curiosity, i keep repeating this chant again and again just for the joy of noticing these vibrations and how they are transeversing in my body. Now i im watching your video and learning that ghis meditation is actually good for people with ADHD. No wonder i was so hooked to it, even though i never heard anyone giving this technique any importance. If someone will enjoy the process if this meditation then even 33 times will be less for him/her. Im telling you want to keep going and until you feel tired of your breath or voicing. ❤❤❤

[@au8438]

I’ve genuinely never felt so targeted lol

[@frillsjane7753]

Same lmao

[@friedensgabel]

yup

[@krackerjackism]

Seriously. It feels like those AI created targeted Tshirts on temu

[@dimeballsydagger6319]

same lmaoo

[@williamspirralafton3143]

it is all apart of youtubes algorthim

[@kiznahalfharpy]

…when I tell you this is the first time I have successfully meditated without feeling like my brain just…was never going to be able to do it and I would never have access to that part of my spirituality, it’s not an exaggeration. Thank you for sharing this.

[@brianneml2979]

I have adhd and I’m dyslexic. Boredom is rejected peace. Once I learned that it was a game changer for me.

[@joolslorien3936]

Yes! I also think boredom is a rejection of authenticity. The deeper you go into appreciating yourself and where you are, the more obvious it becomes that life is endlessly fascinating. That natural “distractibility” is actually endless curiosity that has become distorted by social conditioning. Inner peace + curiosity is the ultimate antidote to boredom.

[@brianneml2979]

@@joolslorien3936 agree with you 💯%. Boredom is also a result of being addicted to drama and outside stimulation. You can become addicted to the chemicals the brain produces when these things happen. So much so you replay past events to get the chemical high… and you cause yourself more stress doing so because the subconscious doesn’t know the difference in you replaying a memory and it actually happening, thing is once you become good at meditation it is a much better feeling than any of that. And dramatically reduces stress which also reduces pain, and helps the immune system. My imagination and looking at the world in ways I did as a child… there’s no boredom for me. ADHD people are only distracted when forced to focus on things they don’t want to. For me there is nothing more fascinating than my own mind and looking at the world in the present moment. Example: I can sit and watch clouds all day and be endlessly amazed and entertained. I think boredom is also a result of taking life for granted. How can you look at nature and not be amazed?

[@joolslorien3936]

⁠@@brianneml2979 That’s so beautiful. I love your reply so much. I’m still at the stage of breaking the addiction and healing my nervous system. It actually feels unsafe to relax into peace! Initially the peaceful and fascinated state of mind felt boring to the addicted drama mind but it’s really worth doing the work to shift states ❤

[@Ascending_Leo816]

Adhd is my super power for sure. Endless distractions , tireless patterns and at the end we are worn out and tired. I've learned walking driving , sitting and listening meditations. They all work especially if you can just keep doing it til it's just you being in a dream state. Light and love😊

[@irisalexander]

me genuinely thinking the bamboo stick thing could be beneficial, then Dr K says "but the problem is ... this is abuse ..." i said "oh.. fair"

[@bananacarnage1318]

Life is abusive.

[@nagahigesautarkesstreben3198]

Another meaning of the Stick-Story is: If you're angry about being hit, you're angry about something in the past, so something that doesn't exists. If you fear being hit, than you fear something in a potential future that doesn't exist. It's accepting as well as to take everything as it is NOW. But great video! I got new insights about the Aum-Chanting, even though I don't have ADHD, thank you!

[@Lenz2371]

I feel like I have been this kid that wanted to explore everything within me, but someone or something brought me off this path. Having listened to this video, I felt like 5 again for a split second. The thrill of Exploring this world within me.

[@Techniclay]

ive seen your videos before and was pleased. this video may have just changed my life... I have narcolepsy and ADHD and have been depressed... well imagine if you thought the closest thing to heaven might just be meditation but refused to try because even if you could focus the second you close your eyes it lights out one more failure... you are a gift thank you

[@rachelloof7569]

The internal universe relatability hits hard for me at least. I learned the meditation aspect of it out of pure accident. Which is funny to hear here and is a blast from the past for me.

[@carlybun231]

learning that you spent seven years studying to become a monk suddenly puts a ton of context into why I immediately clicked with your content. I have ADHD and I have gone back and forth on having a daily meditation practice since 2017, including a few retreats. brilliant video, thank you

[@deusvultu]

So what you're saying is that I sould meditate with "1 hour of silence broken up by random metal pipe sound" in the background in order to distract me? Got it doc!

[@hopps4117]

I just tried this one for maybe 20 mins or so. It felt like I was 'accumulating' a good feeling in my head which was particularly good at the very end of the 'mmmm' - at one point I wish I had more breath so I could hold the end part longer. I felt euphoric by the end of the session and only stopped because I had somewhere to be - super interesting! Afterward I felt really calm and everything sort of felt really peaceful/slow.

[@munchingsquirrel5067]

For some reason "Good vibrations" by The Beach Boys is now on my mind!

[@manofadventure2000]

I had an aid in middleschool and high-school she actually followed me up and was the head of the department, and said she had never seen someone with such a high level of adhd in her life.. and her i thought i couldnt meditate, but i constantly do it like im breathing or walking. I find it very easy to visualize things, and see a metaphysical version of myself as pure love burning with intense light.

[@brandoncoins8246]

Have you tried singing bowls?

[@paulnavarro9986]

I discovered meditation all by my self when I was a kid because I didn’t have any way to express my anger and frustration with out being screamed at and mentally abused

[@JungGun-x-]

As a young child with ADHD I had a lot of trouble falling asleep and I would get so anxious at bedtime. It got much worse in foster care because I didn’t have a TV in my room to help me. Not to mention being away from my family, so sometimes I would cry myself to sleep cause I missed home or my mom. As time went by I started to accept my situation and I began to just lay in my bed not necessarily trying to fall asleep but just thinking, sometimes for hours before I was actually tired and I remember being at peace with myself. My thoughts were so vivid and they would truly make me feel as if my situation was much better than it actually was. It was just a coping mechanism that I developed but looking back now it seems like I was more so meditating than anything. Once it became a habit bedtime was less of an issue, I don’t mind it nowadays but I self medicate with weed so I’m out pretty quick.

[@likebliss]

You have your RE20 pointed at your throat instead of your mouth, so you're missing out on the lovely top-end that the microphone has which you paid lots of money for :)